Jan 24
Retention is not a new concept but in the online arena it has been getting a lot more attention over the past two years. As many schools continue to grow their online course offerings, student readiness for alternative learning environments remains an issue of concern. Many schools are working hard to help students get in the right course and providing them with the necessary tools to keep them enrolled successfully. Schools taking this proactive approach are noticing a return on their investment. 
Schools are using various strategies to provide students with the help they need. Most have an orientation course that includes various tutorials and instructions of how to contact instructors. Some institutions are using a personal touch assigning a mentor or liaison to assist students in communicating their needs. Adding a readiness assessment to measure a student's strengths and weaknesses such as SmarterMeasure is serving not only as a remedial tool, but also gives administrators insight about their students.
Companies like Innovative Educators are noticing a spike in interest of their webinars, many of which focus on student retention. One of their newest resources is called StudentLingo. It is a suite of tutorials and services that offer students remedial help. For a free trial of the StudentLingo suite click here.
Nov 29
A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education highlighted what Central Piedmont Community College is doing to help their online students succeed. Creating a "home grown" assessment that measures student's learning styles is the way they are "getting the conversation going". It is crucial for student success to know what challenges may lie ahead and for administrators to be to know what to talk about. Having an honest conversation about a student's motivation, discipline, plan, and ability to take online classes is a responsible move in guiding them to completing courses.
A home grown learning styles assessment certainly is a beginning step in the right direction. However, is it enough? SmarterMeasure includes a learning styles assessment but also measures readiness in other areas including technical competency, life factors, individual attributes, reading rate and recall, and typing speed and accuracy. It provides a complete profile about a student. Using a tool such as SmarterMeasure gives administrators insight about what students need while providing the student with strong feedback to build their confidence and guide them in their opportunities for improvement.
Nov 7
A recent
article from the Los Angeles Times reports, California has spent $480
million over the past five years on community college drop outs - citing
ill-preparedness, too little support, and lack of remedial help as possible
triggers to poor attrition. The article
acknowledges the stats of dollars and cents spent across the country on drop
outs but doesn’t provide insight about how to “fix” this problem.
Accountability is in
question for many schools with the question being, who is responsible for these
students? For-profits have been under
scrutiny about their recruiting practices over the past couple of years and
have begun to make efforts to screen their students more carefully examining
their motivation, readiness levels, and financial obligations. Community Colleges across the country have
experienced sky rocketing enrollments with the unstable economy. Traditional universities are looking for ways to provide flexible options to students having to juggle financial responsiblities, home life, and school work. So while students are responsible to do their part, prepare for school and commit to completing course work, schools are also having to fund the fall out of those who don't follow through.
SmarterMeasure is a tool many schools are turning to in an effort to be proactive when it comes to predicting what students may withdraw due to ill-preparedness or motivation and commitment. Learn more at www.SmarterMeasure.com.
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